MDAs: Civil Servants Fault Merger Process

Some concerned civil servants, especially staff of the defunct National Planning Commission (NPC), have faulted the process of merging Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

The staff of the now merged Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning have lamented that their regularisation process was marred by irregularities, nepotism, favouritism, and abuse of recruitment standards.

The staff who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation in Abuja said the regularisation and mainstreaming process was seriously abused by the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) with the alleged interference and influence of a deputy director in the FCSC chairman’s office.

They stressed the need for the abnormality to be corrected and addressed by placing officers on appropriate levels, required cadre, and areas of specialisation.

They prayed that “all officers be properly ‘chatted’ and ‘placed’ accordingly, from the year of graduation as required by the power conferred on the Federal Civil Service Commission.

“Implementation of the initial committee’s report that specified chatting, placement, and identification of cadre officers according to their qualifications has been abandoned.

“Intervention of Head of Service of the Federation (HOSE) that approved the regularisation and mainstreaming, and correction of anomalies committed by the defunct National Planning Commission.”

However, when contacted, the deputy director of information, Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Ramon Balogun, said that he had no information concerning the allegation.

“I do not have the information you are requesting, if I had it at my finger tips, I would have given it to you, but I do not have it. What I needed to do was to forward it to the appropriate department, the Recruitment and Appointments department in the Commission, and up until now, I have not received any answer from them,” he said.